Larry Elder is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
I had to look him up. Wikipedia says (here) he’s a “right-wing political commentator and conservative talk radio host” in Los Angeles. He was on the ballot in California’s 2021 recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom, which failed to recall him by 62%-38% (see results here).
Elder is in the news because — I guess the best way of putting it is — he’s in the news. A slew of lesser Republicans have jumped into Trump’s and DeSantis’s pond. Wish them luck, they’ll need it. They also need to make waves to get into the news, so voters won’t go “Larry who?”.
Larry, like the rest of the minnows, needs a wave-making machine. Currently the best one is saying Trump can’t win, because reporters lap it up and that gets them into the news. So Larry said Trump can’t win over swing voters, especially suburban women (see story here). I agree, but don’t know what makes him think he can, when according to Wikipedia he has a
“long history of disparaging statements about women. Elder has contended that ‘Women know less than men about political issues, economics, and current events’ …; mocked women who took part in the 2017 Women’s March as ‘obese’; mocked premenstrual syndrome by saying PMS stands for ‘Punish My Spouse’; endorsed pregnancy discrimination by employers; reposted an article on his website that likened single mothers on welfare to stray cats; and claimed that statistics about domestic violence against women are exaggerated to promote feminism. Elder has asserted that Democrats achieve more success among women voters because they have ’emotionally driven, but often unsound policies.'”
That’s a long paragraph, but Elder has a long list of grievances and prejudices against women. He also “contends that employers should be allowed to discriminate in employment against women who plan to have children, and in his 2002 book he wrote that women who choose to have children are not ‘dedicated’ to their jobs and suggested that they lacked a ‘commitment’ to work.” At this point, you may be wondering if he’s an incel. Here’s what his Wikipedia bio says:
“Elder was married for two years to a female physician …. They divorced in 1994 …. Elder later dated Patricia Stewart from 1996 to 2012 …. Elder then dated Alexandra Datig, a longtime former radio producer for him, and was engaged to her from 2013 until 2015. … Elder disclosed that he had twice been accused of sexual harassment and denied both allegations. In one case, Elder defended himself by implying that the woman was too unattractive for him to sexually harass …. In 2021, … Datig accused him of abuse. Datig said that Elder had demanded she show devotion by having “Larry’s Girl” tattooed on herself and, during an argument, brandished a gun threateningly at her …. Elder denied Datig’s accusations ….”
Draw your own conclusions. I did. His political positions are equally interesting; they include:
- Abortion is murder;
- Replace the federal income tax with a regressive sales tax;
- The minimum wage should be zero;
- Black Lives Matter causes crime;
- Welfare is worse than slavery;
- Climate change is a “crock”;
- Covid vaccines are a Bill Gates plot;
- Police should be allowed to choke people.
It’s hard to believe someone with that mindset actually believes something that’s true, namely, Trump has trouble winning over suburban women. He probably used a cheat sheet for this one, because it’s easy to verify by glancing at the 2020 election results. The trick is you have to believe the results, or this doesn’t work, and Larry doesn’t believe the results, so I’m not sure how he accomplished that backflip.
My headline for this piece doesn’t imply that you or anyone else should vote for Larry Elder. That’s not what I said. I said you should get to know more about him. Why? Because he’s way too interesting to ignore. By the way, he isn’t going to be president.
Photo below: Larry Elder sporting his “Uncle Tom” tee-shirt
